Publication Ethics

(updated November14, 2026)

ASEAN Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine (ASEAN J Rehabil Med) adheres to research integrity principles and aims to avoid scientific misconduct, including fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, redundant publication, and authorship issues. The journal follows the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Guidelines for Good Publication Practice for handling allegations of publishing misconduct pre- and post-publication. Please refer to COPE: Committee on Publication Ethics for more details and see the COPE Guidelines on Good Publication Practice at (https://publicationethics.org/files/u7141/1999pdf13.pdf).

Journal owners, authors, editors, advisory board members, and reviewers are expected to carry out their responsibilities fairly, honestly, and ethically. If there is any evidence of scientific misconduct or any party becomes aware of attempts to manipulate the peer review process, they must report these incidents to the journal.

Journal owners, authors, editors, and reviewers must fulfill their duties with fairness, integrity, and ethical standards. Any evidence of scientific misconduct or attempts to manipulate the peer review process must be reported to the journal. Sanctions for such misconduct are listed in order of severity, beginning with a letter of explanation to the authors and escalating to the most serious measure: reporting the case to the Medical Council or another relevant authority for investigation and appropriate action.

The responsibilities of each participant involved in the reviewing process are as follows.

Role and Duties of the Journal Owner

  1. The executive committees of the Thai Rehabilitation Medicine Association (TRMA) regularly monitor the editor's performance during the executive meetings. They will dismiss the editor only for substantial reasons, such as scientific misconduct, inadequate performance, or inappropriate behavior. It is a policy that the advertisement of any sponsor supporting the journal should only be on the back cover of the printed journal.
  2. The executive committees of the TRMA declare that there are no article processing charges or submission fees for any submitted or accepted articles.

Roles and Duties of the Chief Editor

  1. The Chief Editor operates under the policy guidance of the TRMA Executive Committee and regularly reports the Journal’s progress and relevant issues at executive and annual general meetings.
  2. The Chief Editor utilizes the Journal’s electronic submission system for all official communications and conducts pre-review screening upon submission using Turnitin—for similarity and AI-generated content—alongside copyright infringement checks to ensure research integrity and transparency.
  3. The Chief Editor shall delegate decision-making to an Associate Editor before assigning reviewers or making editorial decisions whenever a submitted manuscript is authored by the Chief Editor, their colleagues, or anyone with whom they have a potential conflict of interest.
  4. The Chief Editor shall select three qualified reviewers from the editorial board or external experts to ensure a fair and unbiased peer-review process. Selected reviewers must have expertise in the relevant field, no affiliation with the authors' institutions, and no conflicts of interest.
  5. The Chief Editor is responsible for selecting high-quality manuscripts for publication following peer review, based on academic merit and relevance to the Journal's scope.
  6. The Chief Editor may use approved AI-assisted tools during the copy-editing stage strictly to identify grammatical, language, and formatting errors—ensuring full manuscript confidentiality—before returning the edited draft to the author to review and approve all tracked changes.
  7. The Chief Editor shall promptly respond after publication to any notifications from authors or third parties regarding significant errors in published articles, as well as address formal complaints concerning the publication process.
  8. The Chief Editor shall regularly monitor throughout the entire editorial lifecycle for potential research, publication, reviewer, or editorial misconduct. Any identified misconduct is subject to formal investigation by the Editorial Board of ASEAN J Rehabil Med. Confirmed breaches of publication ethics, regardless of severity, may result in article retraction, the publication of a formal notice of misconduct, and a formal embargo on future submissions to the Journal.

Roles and Duties of Reviewers

  1. Invited internal and external reviewers shall be informed of the journal's policy of publishing quality medical research, innovation, review articles, and interesting case reports and case series. The peer review process critically assesses manuscripts submitted to the journal, helping authors and the editor improve publication quality.
  2. Invited reviewers can accept or decline the invitation. If there is a conflict, one should decline the invitation. When one accepts as a peer reviewer, he/she should critically assess the manuscript using the journal's review criteria, without personal bias, and submit the review with constructive comments within the timeframe.
  3. Invited reviewers should not suggest that authors include the reviewers' work to increase their citation count, and may do so only for a genuine scientific reason.
  4. The invited reviewers shall treat all reviewed documents/materials as confidential and not directly contact the authors unless the editor gives permission.
  5. The invited reviewers must not use a submitted manuscript and its unpublished materials disclosed in their own research without the written consent of the authors. After submitting their reviews, the reviewers must destroy paper copies of manuscripts and delete electronic copies.
  6. Reviewers are strictly prohibited from using generative AI tools (such as ChatGPT or Gemini) to evaluate, summarize, or write peer-review reports, as this violates manuscript confidentiality. However, reviewers may use AI tools solely for basic language editing and grammatical refinement of their own written feedback before submission.
  7. The invited reviewers shall be asked for permission when the editor considers sharing reviewers' comments with co-reviewers of the same paper to enhance learning from each other.

Roles and Duties of Authors

  1. Authors should follow the journal's format when preparing a manuscript and present accurate data, sufficient detail, references, and unbiased interpretation. Inaccurate statements are unacceptable and unethical.
  2. Authors should avoid plagiarism of others' work and self-plagiarism, which is unethical and unacceptable. Works or words of others should be appropriately cited or quoted, and permission should be obtained when necessary.
  3. All authors are fully responsible for the originality and contents of their submitted manuscripts. All records and data presented in the manuscripts must be accurate and free of research misconduct, such as fabrication, falsification, plagiarism, or any other research or publication misconduct.
  4. When reporting on research that involves human subjects, human material, human tissues, or human data, approval from the local institutional review board (IRB) or other appropriate ethics committees must be obtained before undertaking the research.
  5. Authors should be concerned about authorship, which is limited to those who have contributed significantly to the conception, design, execution, interpretation, writing, and approval of the manuscript. Therefore, list only those with substantial contributions as co-authors, and acknowledge others, including research funders/supporters, in the acknowledgments section.
  6. Authors should disclose any potential conflicts of interest or financial and personal relationships with others that could influence the submitted work in the disclosure section.
  7. Authors must comply with data privacy laws (e.g., PDPA) when using AI: de-identify sensitive data, ensure no PII is uploaded without consent, verify AI privacy terms, and include mandatory AI declarations in the methods (if applicable) and journal declaration.
  8. Authors should review and update their understanding of the journal's guidelines on permitted and prohibited AI uses.
  9. Authors must submit a signed copyright transfer, AI declaration, and confirmation that the manuscript is original and has not been published or submitted elsewhere.
  10. The corresponding author should handle online submission, revise according to peer reviewers' suggestions, communicate with the editor during and after the publication process, and respond promptly to editorial queries.
  11. Authors should promptly notify the editor of a significant error or inaccuracy found in their published article so that the editor can do whatever is necessary, such as correcting or retracting the article.
  12. Authors should contact the chief editor or the president of the TRMA to appeal against the editorial decision.


Ethical Concerns in Human Subjects Research

  1. Informed Consent: Authors must ensure that participants provide informed consent before participating in the study. This involves providing detailed information about the study's purpose, procedures, potential risks, benefits, and the voluntary nature of participation. Participants should understand the information and make an informed decision.
  2. Beneficence and Non-Maleficence: Authors should prioritize the well-being of participants and minimize any potential harm. The study's potential benefits should outweigh the risks. Researchers should reduce risks and ensure participants' safety throughout the study.
  3. Privacy and Confidentiality: Authors must protect participants' privacy and ensure the confidentiality of their personal information. Data collection, storage, and publication should maintain participant anonymity and confidentiality.
  4. Institutional Review Board (IRB) Approval: Authors must obtain approval from an IRB or ethics committee before commencing the study. The authors should include the full name of the ethics committee, the date of approval, and the approval number or ID in their manuscript.
  5. Data Handling and Reporting: Authors should handle data responsibly and accurately report the findings. This includes maintaining the confidentiality of participants' information and presenting results without bias and with transparency.

Clinical Trial Registration 

  1. Trial Registration Number: To enhance transparency and accountability, the ASEAN Journal of Medical Rehabilitation requires the trial registration number for all clinical trial studies. Cite this number in the declaration of ethical approval and link it to the registered trial.
  2. Accepted Registration Organizations: The trial registration number is typically an NCT (National Clinical Trial) number from ClinicalTrials.gov, an ISRCTN (International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number), or a registration number from the Thai Clinical Trials Registry (TCTR). All these numbers are assigned upon trial registration.
  3. Implementation Date and Policy Enforcement: Effective from April 1, 2025, the journal will no longer consider submissions from unregistered clinical trials. For any new clinical trial enrolling participants after this date, manuscripts will only be accepted if the trial has been registered with an appropriate registry prior to the start of the research.


Conflict of Interest (COI) Declaration

  1. Definition of Conflict of Interest: A conflict of interest (COI) occurs when personal, financial, professional, or other secondary interests may improperly influence—or appear to influence—the content, review, or decision-making related to a manuscript. See more details in the ICMJE Recommendations.
  2. Disclosure Requirements at Submission: Authors must disclose any potential COI related to their manuscript at the time of submission using the Authorship, Conflict of Interest Disclosure, and Copyright Transfer Form. This includes financial interests, funding sources, or other relationships that could be perceived as influencing the work. 
  3. Publication of COI: Relevant COI disclosures will be published at the end of the manuscript, before the reference list, to ensure transparency with readers. Disclosures must be updated if new conflicts emerge during the review or publication process.
  4. Publication of No COI: If authors have no conflicts of interest to declare, they must include a statement such as: “The author(s) confirm(s) that there is no conflict of interest related to the manuscript.”
  5. Handling Undisclosed COI: In cases where there is suspicion of an undisclosed conflict of interest during the review process, the journal will follow the guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) for managing such issues.


Data Availability and Sharing Policy

  1. Encouragement for Data Sharing: Authors are encouraged to make their data accessible to others to support the results or analyses presented in their paper. Data should be made available upon reasonable request, at the discretion of the author to determine whether a request is reasonable.
  2. Exceptions due to Privacy or Legal Concerns: If data cannot be shared due to privacy, confidentiality, or legal restrictions, authors should clearly explain these reasons in a Data Sharing Statement.
  3. Responsibility for Data Rights: Authors are responsible for ensuring they have the legal right to share the data and that sharing it does not violate any laws, regulations, or agreements.


Generative AI Policy

  1. Authorship and Accountability: Authors are personally accountable for the accuracy, originality, and validity of all content, including any material generated or assisted by AI tools. AI and AI-assisted technologies do not meet authorship criteria.
  2. Permitted Use: AI may be used for minor language editing, grammar correction, or structuring, provided a human oversees and heavily edits the output. When doing so, authors must input text only in short, isolated snippets, ensure all patient details and institutional names are fully anonymized, and utilize secure, dedicated grammar checkers (like GrammarlyPro) rather than open-ended AI.
  3. Prohibited Use: Relying on AI to generate core ideas, literature reviews, or to fabricate and interpret research findings is strictly prohibited. Citing AI-generated text as a primary source is also prohibited.
  4. Data Privacy and Security: Authors must ensure that patient data, confidential peer-review information, or unpublished manuscripts are never uploaded to open-source AI tools, as this may violate patient privacy and intellectual property rights.
  5. Reproducibility: Authors must provide sufficient documentation, artifacts, or non-AI baselines to enable the independent replication of any AI-assisted research step.
  6. Mandatory Disclosure: Authors must declare all AI usage—including minor language edits and text polishing—both in the submission cover letter and within the Generative AI Declaration section of the manuscript. If no AI tools were used, authors must explicitly state: "No generative AI or AI-assisted technologies were used in the preparation of this manuscript."
  7. Consequences: The journal reserves the right to issue a correction, erratum, or retraction if undisclosed or non-compliant AI usage or integrity gaps are discovered.  See details at Research Misconduct Management & Allegation Procedures

 

Authorship and Contribution

  1. ASEAN J Rehabil Med recommends that authorship is based on the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) criteria:
    -     Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
    -     Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
    -     Final approval of the version to be published; AND
    -     Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
  1. ASEAN J Rehabil Med encourages authors to specify the contributions of each individual who participated in the submitted work. To identify each author, use the first name and family name, followed by the contributor roles according to the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT).


Research Misconduct Management and Post-Publication Amendments

  1. Research Misconduct Policy: Details our procedures for handling allegations of data fabrication, plagiarism, and ethical violations. See details at Research Misconduct Management & Allegation Procedures
  2. Corrections & Retractions Policy: Outlines our standards for publishing Errata, Corrigenda, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions. See details at Journal Policy on Corrections, Retractions, and Ethical Amendments

Ethical considerations may vary across countries and institutions. Authors should familiarize themselves with the ethical guidelines and regulations applicable to their research context. Consulting with institutional ethics committees or relevant authorities can provide further guidance on ethical considerations for human research studies.